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Utilities cop barrage of complaints

Rachel Wells

A RECORD number of Victorians have lodged complaints against energy and water companies, a report has revealed.

The Energy and Water Ombudsman (Victoria) annual report shows a 23 per cent rise in complaints to the organisation in the past financial year.

Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert said the increase was largely due to a 31 per cent increase in electricity complaints, mostly about solar tariffs, customer concerns about the installation of smart meters and billing system problems that affected two major energy retailers.

Ms Gebert said affordability was also becoming an ''alarming'' problem, with the volume of credit-related complaints increasing 20 per cent.

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Complaints about billing - up 30 per cent from last year - continued to be the most complained about issue among electricity, gas and water customers.

However, for the first time and despite skyrocketing electricity prices, tariff issues overtook high bills as the biggest issue for electricity users, with tariff complaints up 57 per cent on the previous year.

The report notes the jump in tariff complaints was driven by concerns about solar feed-in tariffs - in particular that electricity retailers had not applied the correct solar tariff or had not applied any solar tariff or any solar credits.

Ms Gebert said they saw a huge surge in solar tariff complaints as the state government's Premium Feed-in Tariff drew to a close, with customers concerned they were being charged a higher tariff than they believed they should have been.

Ms Gebert said systemic billing system problems at two large energy retailers that affected ''hundreds and thousands'' of customers and caused billing delays of up to 12 months also caused consumers headaches.

In August, The Age reported that thousands of Victorians were being asked to pay for up to 12 months of electricity bills in one hit because of the billing system failures.

In the six months to June, the ombudsman received 2285 calls about late bills, almost the same number - 2333 - that it received for the entire 2010-11 financial year.

Ms Gebert said the problems were particularly ''concerning'' because they affected a large number of households at a time when energy prices were on the rise.

''If you get a significant back bill at a time when bills are rising and cost-of-living pressures are increasing … it is going to cause a significant amount of pain,'' she said.

Overall, electricity complaints were up 197 per cent compared with five years ago, with gas complaints up 126 per cent and water complaints rising 74 per cent since 2007-08.